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Community Solutions Accelerator (CSA)

Human-Centered Design & Innovation

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Our Why

We need to design smarter, more effective and forward-thinking solutions to community problems that will make significant progress and deliver meaningful outcomes. This means doing things differently, engaging the right partners, and infusing innovation and technology into the fabric of what we do. Through this, we will deliver ground breaking solutions that can make a significant impact on: improving public safety and health, creating a better experience for Edmontonians and Albertans, and that can potentially be commercialized globally.

As such, the Community Solutions Accelerator (CSA) is being formed to create a collaborative and innovative forum that changes the way we look at challenges and solutions.

The CSA is an innovative accelerator platform for problem-solving and opportunity seeking approaches that leverages skills, data, knowledge and expertise from multiple sources, agencies and individuals to work collectively to generate solutions to challenges that have been collectively identified by the community, social agencies, healthcare and law-enforcement. Solutions will come in the form of new evidence and understandings via data integration and analysis, and/or via the adoption of new technologies that solve community/social problems.

Our community is diverse and complex, and community safety and well-being needs and expectations are rising and evolving rapidly. As such, our organizations are working to:

  • Engage with our partners and stakeholders
    • We need to create effective and innovative full-circle solutions to our community challenges as a growing city.
  • Develop our agility and resilience as a city
    • We need to adapt to the realities and opportunities of modern information and solutions. We need to start solving challenges differently.

We know that solutions to community challenges have been implemented in relatively the same manner for decades, while results have not necessarily been long-lasting or fully met community needs.

A new community-based approach is needed, with stakeholders who think differently. We need partners who focus on opportunities to build a better experience of Edmonton, as measured by outcomes, through ethics, transparency, value, impact, efficiency, technology and innovation, resiliency and a global reach.

Shared beliefs/purpose for partnership

  • Alberta is a hub for the talented and tenacious, innovative and ambitious. This is the time to be bold and courageous and help steer this province into a more prosperous future.
  • We are all committed to being in business for the greater good – and driving greater social impact.
  • Each of our organization’s success depends heavily on the socioeconomic progress of Albertans. Albertans are facing real, systemic social issues, which will only accelerate in the next decade. Consider income inequality as an example.
  • Together, we will use a data-driven approach to pinpoint the greatest challenges facing Alberta’s social and economic progress – starting first in Edmonton. We will consider how we can leverage the ecosystem of business leaders; law enforcement; community and social agencies and healthcare providers to lead change.

Our Principals

Principle 1: Above all, our focus will be on Community Safety and how best to maximize this for all Albertans

Principle 2: Work to create a better experience for Albertans most in need through human-centred design and innovation.

Principle 3: Uphold the public safety and well-being of all Albertans with every decision we make.

Principle 4: Create new opportunities for social and economic prosperity for Albertans most in need.

Principle 5: Focus on the long view and make decisions that seek to solve societal problems and create economic prosperity. We will avoid decisions based on seeking short term capital gains.

Principle 6: While we will start in Edmonton, our goal is to uplift the lives of Albertans most in need.

Our Primary Objectives

Create a better experience for Edmontonians and Albertans by:

  • Diminishing harm to individuals.
  • Disrupting, mitigating, and decreasing crime and disorder.
  • Creating new opportunities for social and economic prosperity including better healthcare outcomes for our most vulnerable.

Signed Charter Document

How Can You Help or Participate?

  • Do you have data you would like to contribute (e.g. part of a government department, community based program, etc.)?
  • Do you have a challenge you have been trying to solve or want to solve and feel that the CSA could help?
  • Do you have the capacity to donate funds, resources, talent/know how, infrastructure, other items that you feel would help the CSA achieve its mission?
  • Do you have ideas on which agencies, corporations, etc. the CSA should partner with?
  • If you answered yes to any of the above or just want more information, email us at: csa@edmontonpolicefoundation.com

Posted Challenges

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